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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 26, 2020UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington,WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FormFORM 20-F

OR

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 20192022

OR

OR

Date of event requiring this shell company report          

For the transition period from                 to

Commission file number:  1-13546

STMicroelectronics N.V.

(Exact name of registrantRegistrant as specified in its charter)

WTC Schiphol Airport

Schiphol Boulevard 265

1118 BH Schiphol

The Netherlands

(Address of principal executive offices)

Jean-Marc Chery

39, Chemin du Champ des Filles

1228 Plan-Les-Ouates

Geneva

Switzerland

Tel:  +41 22 929 29 29

Fax:  +41 22 929 29 88

(Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:Act.

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:  Act.

None

(Title of Class)

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act:  Act.

None

(Title of Class)

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report:report.

911,186,920903,865,763 common shares atoutstanding as of December 31, 20192022

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  ☒Yes    ☒    No  ☐No

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  ☐Yes    ☐    No  ☒No

Note – Checking the box above will not relieve any registrant required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 from their obligations under those Sections.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days:    days.  ☒Yes    ☒    No   ☐No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).  ☒Yes    ☒    No  ☐No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company.  See the definition of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated“accelerated filer”, and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  ☐

† The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.   ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the

registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b).  ☐

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. ☐Item 17  ☐ Item 18☐

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).   ☐ Yes  ☒  No

(APPLICABLE ONLY TO ISSUERS INVOLVED IN BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS DURING THE PAST FIVE YEARS)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed all documents and reports required to be filed by Sections 12, 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 subsequent to the distribution of securities under a plan confirmed by a court.  ☐Yes  ☐  No☒

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PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL AND OTHER INFORMATION

In this annual report on Form 20-F (the “Form 20-F”), references to “we”, “us” and “Company” are to STMicroelectronics N.V. together with its consolidated subsidiaries, references to “EU” are to the European Union, references to “€” and the “Euro” are to the Euro currency of the EU, references to the “United States” and the “U.S.” are to the United States of America and references to “$” and to “U.S. dollars” are to United States dollars. References to “mm” are to millimeters and references to “nm” are to nanometers.

We have compiled market size and our market share data in this Form 20-F using statistics and other information obtained from several third-party sources. Except as otherwise disclosed herein, all references to trade association data are references to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (“WSTS”). Certain terms used in this Form 20-F are defined in “Certain Terms”.

We report our financial statements in U.S. dollars and prepare our Consolidated Financial Statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”). We also report certain non-U.S. GAAP financial measures (free cash flow and net financial position), which are derived from the amounts presented in the financial statements prepared under U.S. GAAP. Furthermore, we are required by Dutch law to report our Statutory and Consolidated Financial Statements, in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”), as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”) and adopted by the European Union.  The IFRS financial statements are reported separately and can differ materially from the statements reported in U.S. GAAP.

Various amounts and percentages used in this Form 20-F have been rounded and, accordingly, they may not total 100%.

We and our affiliates own or otherwise have rights to the trademarks and trade names, including those mentioned in this Form 20-F, used in conjunction with the marketing and sale of our products.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Some of the statements contained in this Form 20-F that are not historical facts, particularly in “Item 3. Key Information — Risk Factors”, “Item 4. Information on the Company” and “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” and “— Business Outlook” are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements (within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 or Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, each as amended) that are based on management’s current views and assumptions, and are conditioned upon and also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those anticipated by such statements due to, among other factors:

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Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results and performance of our business to differ materially and adversely from the forward-looking statements. Certain forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, such as “believes”, “expects”, “may”, “are expected to”, “should”, “would be”, “seeks” or “anticipates” or similar expressions or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions. Some of these risk factors are set forth and are discussed in more detail in “Item 3. Key Information — Risk Factors”. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this Form 20-F as anticipated, believed or expected. We do not intend, and do not assume any obligation, to update any industry information or forward-looking statements set forth in this Form 20-F to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Unfavorable changes in the above or other factors listed under “Item 3. Key Information — Risk Factors” from time to time in our Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filings, could have a material adverse effect on our business and/or financial condition.

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Part I

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Selected Financial Data

The table below sets forth our selected consolidated financial data for each of the years in the five-year period ended December 31, 2019.2022. Such data have been derived from our audited Consolidated Financial Statements. Audited Consolidated Financial Statements for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2019,2022, including the Notes thereto (collectively, the “Consolidated Financial Statements”), are included elsewhere in this Form 20-F, while data for prior periods have been derived from our audited Consolidated Financial Statements used in such periods.

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The following information should be read in conjunction with “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” and the audited Consolidated Financial Statements and the related Notes thereto included in “Item 18. Financial Statements” in this Form 20-F.

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RISK FACTORS

Risks Related to the Semiconductor Industry which Impact Us

We, and the semiconductor industry as a whole, may be impacted by changes in, or uncertainty about, global, regional and local economic, political, legal, regulatory and social environments as well as climate change.

Changes in, and uncertainty about, economic, political, legal, regulatory and social conditions pose a risk as consumers and businesses may postpone spending in response to factors such as curtailment of trade and other business restrictions, financial market volatility, interest rate fluctuations, shifts in inflationary and deflationary expectations, lower capital and productivity growth, unemployment, negative news, declines in income or asset values and/or other factors. Such global, regional and local conditions could have a material adverse effect on customer and end-market demand for our products, thus materially adversely affecting our business and financial condition.  

The ongoing geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in the U.S. and certain other countries imposing sanctions on Russia. Any further consequences of this conflict could include a risk of further sanctions, embargoes, regional instability, geopolitical shifts and adverse effects on macro-economic conditions, currency exchange rates and financial markets. This could lead to further disruption to international commerce and the global economy, and could have a negative effect on our ability to sell to, ship products to, collect payments from, and support customers in certain regions based on trade restrictions, embargoes, logistics restrictions and export control law restrictions. We may also experience a shortage of certain semiconductor components and delays in shipments due to supply chain disruptions caused by geopolitical conflicts such as the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The institution of trade tariffs globally, as well as the threat thereof, could negatively impact economic conditions, which could have negative repercussions for our business. In 2019, bothparticular, trade protection and national security policies of the U.S. Administration as well as several foreignand Chinese governments, including tariffs, trade restrictions, export restrictions and the placing of companies on restricted entity lists, have been undertaking significant trade policy changes,and may continue to limit or prevent us from transacting business with certain of our Chinese customers or suppliers; limit, prevent or discourage certain of our Chinese customers or suppliers from transacting business with us; or make it more expensive to do so. If disputes were to arise under any of our agreements with other parties conducting business in some cases followedChina, the resolution of such dispute may be subject to the exercise of discretion by legislativethe Chinese government, or executive action. For instance, the more recent phase one deal signed by U.S. and China in January 2020 still leaves in place a significant number of tariffs until the second phaseagencies of the deal is agreedChinese government, which may have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, we could face increased competition as a result of China's programs to promote a domestic semiconductor industry and there is no assurance that further tariffs would not be appliedsupply chains (including the Made in the future. China 2025 campaign).

Trade policy changes could trigger retaliatory actions by affected countries, which could have a negative impact on our ability to do business in affected countries or lead to reduced purchases of our products by foreign customers, leading to increased costs of components contained in our products, increased manufacturing costs of our products, currency exchange rate volatility, and higher prices for our products in foreign markets. Further, protectionist measures, laws or governmental policies may encourage our customers to relocate their manufacturing capacity or supply chain to their own respective countries or other countries, or require their respective contractors, subcontractors and relevant agents to do so, which could impair our ability to sustain our current level of productivity and manufacturing efficiency.    

We, and the semiconductor industry as a whole, face greater risks due to the international nature of the semiconductor business, including in the countries where we, our customers or our suppliers operate, such as:

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The semiconductor industry is cyclical and downturns in the semiconductor industry can negatively affect our results of operations and financial condition.

The semiconductor industry is cyclical and has been subject to significant downturns from time to time, as a result of global economic conditions, as well as industry-specific factors, such as built-in excess capacity, fluctuations in product supply, product obsolescence and changes in end-customer preferences. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant contraction in the global economy, and there is considerable uncertainty as to its severity and duration. See “Item 3. Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to the Semiconductor Industry which Impact Us — We, and the semiconductor industry as a whole, may be impacted by changes in, or uncertainty about, global, regional and local economic, political, legal, regulatory and social environments as well as climate change.”

Downturns are typically characterized by reduction in overall demand, accelerated erosion of selling prices, reduced revenues and high inventory levels, any of which could result in a significant deterioration of our results of operations. Such macroeconomicmacro-economic trends typically relate to the semiconductor industry as a whole rather than to the individual semiconductor markets to which we sell our products. To the extent that industry downturns are concurrent with the timing of new increases in production capacity or introduction of new advanced technologies in our industry, the negative effects on our business from such industry downturns may also be more severe. We have experienced revenue volatility and market downturns in the past and expect to experience them in the future, which could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and financial condition.

6The recent increase in inflation rates in the markets in which we operate may lead us to experience higher labor costs, energy costs, water costs, transportation costs, wafer costs and other costs for raw materials from suppliers. Our suppliers may raise their prices, and in the competitive markets in which we operate, we may not be able to make corresponding price increases to preserve our gross margins and profitability due to market conditions and competitive dynamics. Additionally, any such increase in prices may not be accepted by our customers.

The duration and the severity of the global outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted and may continue to impact the global economy and also could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in authorities imposing, and businesses and individuals implementing, numerous measures to try to contain the virus, including travel bans and restrictions, shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders, quarantines and social distancing guidelines. While to date we have not seen a significant impact on our manufacturing facilities or our supply chain – the ability of our suppliers to deliver on their commitments to us, our ability to ship our products to our customers and general consumer demand for our products may be negatively impacted by the pandemic and/or government responses thereto.

Many of our products and services are considered to be essential under national and local guidelines. As such, we have generally continued to operate in each of the jurisdictions where we are present. However, certain of our facilities have not been able to operate at optimal capacity and any future restrictive measures may have negative impact on our operations, supply chain and transportation networks. In addition, our customers and suppliers have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions in their operations and supply chains, which can result in delayed, reduced, or cancelled orders, or collection risks, and which may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected and may continue to adversely affect the economies and financial markets of many countries, and may result in a further prolonged period of regional, national, and global economic slowdown. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the world have and are expected to spend significant amounts to fund disease control measures, support healthcare infrastructure, support businesses and revive their economies. Governments could look to re-direct resources and implement

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austerity measures in the future to balance public finances, which could result in reduced economic activity. Any further economic downturn could reduce overall demand for our products, accelerate the erosion of selling prices, lead to reduced revenues and higher inventory levels, any of which could result in a significant deterioration of our results of operations and financial condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused us to modify our business practices, including with respect to work-from home policies, employee travel, the cancellation of physical participation in meetings, events, and conferences, and social distancing measures. Although these changes have not led to a significant impact on our business or results of operations, we could be negatively affected in the future if government policies further restrict the ability of our employees to perform their functions or if our employees contract or are exposed to COVID-19. In addition, work-from-home and other measures introduce additional operational risks, including cybersecurity risks. There is no certainty that such measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks posed by the virus, and illness and workforce disruptions could lead to unavailability of key personnel and harm our ability to perform critical functions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased disruption and volatility in capital markets and credit markets. Unanticipated consequences of this pandemic and resulting economic uncertainty could adversely affect our liquidity and capital resources in the future.

The degree to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including, but not limited to, the duration and severity of the pandemic, the actions taken to contain the virus or treat its impact, other actions taken by governments, businesses, and individuals in response to the virus and resulting economic disruption, and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume. We are unable to predict the extent of the impact of the pandemic on our customers, suppliers, vendors, and other partners, and their financial conditions, but a material effect on these parties could also materially adversely affect us.

Given the continued and substantial economic uncertainty and volatility created by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is difficult to predict the nature and extent of impacts on demand for our products. For example, the increased demand for certain of our products that benefited as a result of work- and learn-from-home dynamics may not continue as the pandemic progresses or subsides. Similarly, even as the pandemic progresses or subsides, products for which sales have declined or where costs have increased could continue to experience lower sales or higher costs.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can also exacerbate other risks discussed herein, which could in turn have a material adverse effect on us. Developments related to COVID-19 have been unpredictable, and additional impacts and risks may arise that we are not aware of or able to respond to appropriately.

We may not be able to match our production capacity to demand.

As a result of the cyclicality and volatility of the semiconductor industry, it is difficult to predict future developments in the markets we serve, and, in turn, to estimate requirements for production capacity. If our markets, start-up or ramp-ups in manufacturing operations are not efficiently executed, major customers or certain product designs or technologies do not perform as well as we have anticipated, or if demand is impacted by factors outside of our or our customers’ control, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, we risk unused capacity charges, write-offs of inventories and losses on products, and we could be required to undertake restructuring and transformation measures that may involve significant charges to our earnings. Furthermore, during certain periods, we have also experienced increased demand in certain market segments and product technologies, which has led to a shortage of capacity, an increase in the lead times of our delivery to customers and, in certain instances, being required to enter into agreements with our suppliers with onerous terms, such as take-or-pay arrangements.  See “Item 5. Operating

The global supply of semiconductor industry fabrication capacity is currently not sufficient to meet the demand for semiconductor products. Any shortage of our capacity and Financial Reviewthe capacity of our sub-contractors may lead to us being unable to service some of our customers, which may result in adverse effects on our customer relationships and Prospects — Resultsin liability claims. Further, as a result of Operations — Impairment, restructuring chargesthis supply imbalance, the industry in general has experienced a high level of profitability and other related closure costs”.gross margins, which may not be sustainable over the long-term.

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Competition in the semiconductor industry is intense, and we may not be able to compete successfully if our product design technologies, process technologies and products do not meet market requirements. Furthermore, the competitive environment of the industry has resulted, and is expected to continue to result, in vertical and horizontal consolidation among our suppliers, competitors and customers, which may lead to erosion of our market share, impact our ability to compete and require us to restructure our operations.

We compete in different product lines to various degrees on certain characteristics, for example, price, technical performance, product features, product design, product availability, process technology, manufacturing capabilities and sales and technical support. Given the intense competition in the semiconductor industry, if our products do not meet market requirements based on any of these characteristics, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected. Our competitors may have a stronger presence in key markets and geographic regions, greater name recognition, larger customer bases, greater government support and greater financial, research and development, sales and marketing, manufacturing, distribution, technical and other resources than we do. These competitors may be able to adapt more quickly to changes in the business environment, to new or emerging technologies and to changes in customer requirements.

The semiconductor industry is intensely competitive and characterized by the high costs associated with developing marketable products and manufacturing technologies as well as high levels of investment in production capabilities. As a result, the semiconductor industry has experienced, and is expected to continue to experience, significant vertical and horizontal consolidation among our suppliers, competitors and customers.  Consolidation in the semiconductor industry could erode our market share, negatively impact our ability to compete and require us to increase our R&D effort, engage in mergers and acquisitions and/or restructure our operations.

Risks Related to Our Operations

Our high fixed costs could adversely impact our results.

Our operations are characterized by high fixed or other costs which are difficult to reduce, including costs related to manufacturing, particularly as we operate our own manufacturing facilities, and the employment of our highly skilled workforce. When demand for our products decreases, competition increases or we fail to forecast demand accurately, we aremay be driven to reduce prices and we aremay not always be able to decrease our total costs in line with resulting revenue declines. As a result, the costs associated with our operations may not be fully absorbed, leading to unused capacity charges, higher average unit costs and lower gross margins, adversely impacting our results.

Our capital needs are high compared to those competitors who do not manufacture their own products and we may need additional funding in the coming years to finance our investments, to purchase other companies or technologies developed by third parties or to refinance our maturing indebtedness.

As a result of our choice to maintain control of a large portion of our manufacturing technologies and capabilities, we may require significant capital expenditure to maintain or upgrade our facilities in the event thatif our facilities become inadequate in terms of capacity, flexibility and location. We monitor our capital expenditures taking into consideration factors such as trends in the semiconductor market, customer requirements and capacity utilization. These capital expenditures may increase in the future if we decide to upgrade or expand the capacity of our manufacturing facilities, purchase or build new facilities or increase investments supporting key strategic initiatives. For instance, we may be unable to successfully maintain and operate large infrastructure projects. Such increased capital expenditures associated with large infrastructure

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projects and strategic initiatives might not achieve profitability or we may be unable to utilize infrastructure projects to full capacity. There can also be no assurance that future market demand and products required by our customers will meet our expectations. We also may need to invest in other companies, in IP and/or in technology developed either by us or by third parties to maintain or improve our position in the market or to reinforce our existing business. Failure to invest appropriately and in a timely manner or to successfully integrate any recent or future business acquisitions may prevent us from achieving the anticipated benefits and could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

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The foregoing may require us to secure additional financing, including through the issuance of debt, equity or both. The timing and the size of any new share or bond offering would depend upon market conditions as well as a variety of other factors. In addition, the capital markets may from time to time offer terms of financing that are particularly favorable. We cannot exclude that we may access the capital markets opportunistically to take advantage of market conditions. Any such transaction or any announcement concerning such a transaction could materially impact the market price of our common shares. If we are unable to access capital on acceptable terms, this may adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Our operating results depend on our ability to obtain quality supplies on commercially reasonable terms. As we depend on a limited number of suppliers for materials, equipment and technology, we may experience supply disruptions if suppliers interrupt supply, increase prices or experience material adverse changes in their financial condition.

Our ability to meet our customers’ demand to manufacture our products depends upon obtaining adequate supplies of quality materials on a timely basis and on commercially reasonable terms. Certain materials are available from a limited number of suppliers or only from a limited number of suppliers in a particular region. We purchase certain materials whose prices on the world markets have fluctuated significantly in the past and may fluctuate significantly in the future. Although supplies for most of the materials we currently use are adequate, shortages could occur in various essential materials due to interruption of supply or increased demand in the industry. For instance, epidemics or pandemics such as the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreakpandemic could cause disruptions from the temporary closure of suppliers’ facilities in China or delays and reduced export or shipment of various materials. Geopolitical conflicts such as the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine could also disrupt supply chains and cause shortages of certain semiconductor components and corresponding delays in shipments. Any such shortage may impact different geographical markets disproportionately, leading to shortages or unavailability of supplies in specific areas and higher transportation costs. In addition, the costs of certain materials may increase due to recent inflationary rates and market pressures and we may not be able to pass on such cost increases to our customers.

We also purchase semiconductor manufacturing equipment and third partythird-party licensed technology from a limited number of suppliers and providers and, because such equipment and technology are complex, it is difficult to replace one supplier or provider with another or to substitute one piece of equipment or type of technology for another. In addition, suppliers and providers may extend lead times, limit our supply, increase prices or change contractual terms related to certain manufacturing equipment and third partythird-party licensed technology, any of which could adversely affect our results. Furthermore, suppliers and technology providers tend to focus their investments on providing the most technologically advanced equipment, materials and technology and may not be in a positionable to address our requirements for equipment, materials or technology of older generations. Although we work closely with our suppliers and providers to avoid such shortages, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter these problems in the future.

Consolidation among our suppliers or vertical integration among our competitors may limit our ability to obtain sufficient quantities of materials, equipment and/or technology on commercially reasonable terms and engage in mergers and acquisitions. In certain instances, we may be required to enter into agreements with our suppliers with onerous terms, such as take-or-pay arrangements. If we are unable to obtain supplies of materials, equipment or technology in a timely manner or at all, or if such materials, equipment or technology prove inadequate or too costly, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

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Our financial results can be affected by fluctuations in exchange rates, principally in the value of the U.S. dollar.

Currency exchange rate fluctuations affect our results of operations because our reporting currency is the U.S. dollar, in which we receive the major portion of our revenues, while, more importantly, we incur a limited portion of our revenue and a significantly higher portion of our costs in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. A significant variation of the value of the U.S. dollar against the principal currencies that have a material impact on us (primarily the Euro, but also certain other currencies of countries where we have operations, such as the Singapore dollar) could result in a favorable impact, net of hedging, on our net income in the case of an appreciation of the U.S. dollar, or a negative impact, net of hedging, on our net income if the U.S. dollar depreciates relative to these currencies, in particular with respect to the Euro.

In order to reduce the exposure of our financial results to the fluctuations in exchange rates, our principal strategy has been to balance as much as possible the proportion of sales to our customers denominated in U.S. dollars with the amount of purchases from our suppliers denominated in U.S. dollars and to reduce the weight of

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the other costs, including depreciation, denominated in Euros and in other currencies. In order to further reduce our exposure to U.S. dollar exchange rate fluctuations, we have hedged certain line items on our Consolidated Statementsconsolidated statements of Income,income, in particular with respect to a portion of the cost of sales, the majority of the R&D expenses and certain SG&A expenses located in the Euro zone. We also hedge certain manufacturing costs, included within the cost of sales, denominated in Singapore dollars. There can be no assurance that our hedging transactions will prevent us from incurring higher Euro-denominated manufacturing costs and/or operating expenses when translated into our U.S. dollar-based accounts. See “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects — Impact of Changes in Exchange Rates” and “Item 11. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk”.

Our operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter and annually and may also differ significantly from our expectations or guidance.

Our operating results are affected by a wide variety of factors that could materially and adversely affect revenues and profitability or lead to significant variability of our operating results from one period to the next. These factors include changes in demand from our key customers, capital requirements, inventory management, availability of funding, competition, new product developments, start of adoption of our new products by customers, technological changes, manufacturing or supplier issues and effective tax rates. In addition, in periods of industry overcapacity or when our key customers encounter difficulties in their end-markets or product ramps, orders are more exposed to cancellations, reductions, price renegotiation or postponements, which in turn reduce our ability to forecast the next quarter or full year production levels, revenues and margins. As a result, we may not meet our financial targets, which could in turn have an impact on our reputation or brand. For these reasons and others that we may not yet have identified, our revenues and operating results may differ materially from our expectations or guidance as visibility is reduced. See “Item 4. Information on the Company — Backlog”.

If our external silicon foundries or back-end subcontractors fail to perform, this could adversely affect our business prospects.prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We currently use external silicon foundries and back-end subcontractors for a portion of our manufacturing activities. If ourOur external silicon foundries or back-end subcontractors are currently unable to satisfy our demand as a result of an increase in demand across our industry and disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we expect such limitation in capacity to continue through 2023. This limitation on our ability to satisfy our demand may extend beyond 2023, and our external silicon foundries and back-end subcontractors may experience further inability to satisfy our demand as a result of competing orders, disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise or may experience manufacturing difficulties, delays or reduced yields,yields. Any limitation on the ability of our external silicon foundries and back-end subcontractors to satisfy our demand may cause our results of operations and ability to satisfy customerthe demand couldof our customers to suffer. Likewise, if we are unable to meet our commitments to silicon foundries and back-end subcontractors, our results of operations could suffer. Prices for these services also vary depending on capacity utilization rates at our external silicon foundries and back-end subcontractors, quantities demanded and product and process technology. Such outsourcing costs can vary materially and, in cases of industry shortages, they can increase significantly, negatively impacting our business prospects.prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Our manufacturing processes are highly complex, costly and potentially vulnerable to impurities, disruptions or inefficient implementation of production changes or interruptions that can significantly increase our costs and delay product shipments to our customers.

Our manufacturing processes are highly complex, require advanced and increasingly costly equipment and are continuously modified or maintained in an effort to improve yields and product performance and lower the cost of production.  

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Furthermore, impurities or other difficulties in the manufacturing process can lower yields, interrupt production or result in scrap. As system complexity and production changes have increased and sub-micron technology has become more advanced, manufacturing tolerances have been reduced and requirements for precision have become even more demanding. We have from time to time experienced bottlenecks and production difficulties that have caused delivery delays and quality control problems. There can be no assurance that we will not experience bottlenecks or production, transition or other difficulties in the future.

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In addition, we are exposed to risks related to interruptions of our manufacturing processes. If any of our property or equipment is damaged or otherwise rendered unusable or inoperable due to accident, cyberattack or otherwise this could result in interruptions which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may experience quality problems from time to time that can result in decreased sales and operating margin and product liability or warranty claims.

We sell complex products that may not in each case comply with specifications or customer requirements, or may contain design or manufacturing defects, that could cause personal injury, property damage or security risks that could be exploited by unauthorized third parties hacking, corrupting or otherwise obtaining access to our products, including the software loaded thereon by us, our suppliers or our customers. Although our general practice is to contractually limit our liability to the repair, replacement or refund of defective products, we occasionally agree to contractual terms with key customers in which we provide extended warranties and accordingly we may face product liability, warranty, delivery failure, and/or other claims relating to our products that could result in significant expenses relating to compensation payments, product recalls or other actions related to such extended warranties and/or to maintain good customer relationships, which could result in decreased sales and operating margin and other material adverse effects on our business. Costs or payments we may make in connection with warranty and other claims or product recalls may adversely affect our results of operations. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in maintaining our relationships with customers with whom we incur quality problems. Furthermore, if litigation occurs we could incur significant costs and liabilities to defend ourselves against such claimsclaims. The industry has experienced a rise in premiums and ifdeductibles with regards to insurance policies. These may continue to increase and insurance coverage may also correspondingly decrease. If litigation occurs and damages are awarded against us, there can be no assurance that our insurance policies will be available or adequate to protect us against such claims.

Disruptions in our relationships with any one of our key customers or distributors, and/or material changes in their strategy or financial condition or business prospects, could adversely affect our results of operations.

A substantial portion of our sales is derived from a limited number of customers and distributors. There can be no assurance that our customers or distributors will continue to book the same level of sales with us that they have in the past, will continue to succeed in the markets they serve and will not purchase competing products over our products. Many of our key customers and distributors operate in cyclical businesses that are also highly competitive, and their own market positions may vary considerably. In recent years, some of our customers have vertically integrated their businesses. Such vertical integrations may impact our business. Our relationships with the newly formed entities could be either reinforced or jeopardized by the integration. If we are unable to maintain or increase our market share with our key customers or distributors, or if they were to increase product returns or fail to meet payment obligations, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected. Certain of our products are customized to our customers’ specifications. If customers do not purchase products made specifically for them, we may not be able to recover a cancellation fee from our customers or resell such products to other customers. In addition, the occurrence of epidemic or pandemic outbreaks such as the novel coronavirus COVID-19 could affect our customers. While the geographic spread of epidemics or pandemics such as the novel coronavirusCOVID-19 pandemic cannot COVID-19 be predicted and its future developments are uncertain, if its severity increases, the adverse public health impact on our customers could negatively affect our results.

We may experience delays in delivering our product and technology roadmaps as well as transformation initiatives.

Our industry adapts to technological advancements and it is likely that new products, equipment, processes and service methods, including transformation initiatives related to digitalization, are in the process of being implemented. Any failure by us to manage our data governance processes could undermine our initiatives related to digitalization and any failure by us to react to changes or advances in existing technologies and processes as we develop and invest in our product, technology and transformation roadmaps could materially delay the introduction of new solutions. If we are not able to execute on these roadmaps on a timely basis or at an acceptable cost this could result in loss of competitiveness of our solutions, decreased revenue and a loss of market share.

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Our computer systems, including hardware, software, information and cloud-based initiatives, are subject to attempted security breaches and other cybersecurity threats, which, if successful, could adversely impact our business.

We have, from time to time, detected and experienced attempts by others to gain unauthorized access to our computer systems and networks. The reliability and security of our information technology infrastructure and software, and our ability to expand and continually update technologies, including to transition to cloud-based technologies, in response to our changing needs is critical to our business. In the current environment, there are numerous and evolving risks to cybersecurity, including criminal hackers, state-sponsored intrusions, terrorism, industrial espionage, employee malfeasance, vandalism and human or technological error. Computer hackers and others routinely attempt to breach the security of technology products, services, and systems, and those of our customers, suppliers, partners and providers of third partythird-party licensed technology, and some of those attempts may be successful. Such breaches could result in, for example, unauthorized access to, disclosure, modification, misuse, loss, or destruction of our, our customer, or other third partythird-party data or systems, theft of our trade secrets and other sensitive or confidential data, including personal information and intellectual property,IP, system disruptions, and denial of service.  

The attempts to breach our systems, including our cloud-based systems, and to gain unauthorized access to our information technology systems are becoming increasingly more sophisticated. These attempts may include covertly introducing malware tointo our computers, including those in our manufacturing operations, and impersonating unauthorized users, among others. For instance, employees and former employees, in particular former employees who become employees of our competitors or customers, may misappropriate, use, publish or provide to our competitors or customers our intellectual propertyIP and/or proprietary or confidential business information. Also, third parties may attempt to register domain names similar to our brands or website, which could cause confusion and divert online customers away from our products. In the event of such breaches, we, our customers or other third parties could be exposed to potential liability, litigation, and regulatory action, as well as the loss of existing or potential customers, damage to our reputation, and other financial loss and such breaches could also result in losing existing or potential customers in connection with any actual or perceived security vulnerabilities in our systems. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of responding to breaches and implementing remediation measures could be significant. As these threats continue to develop and grow, we have been adapting and strengthening our security measures.  

As a result of the social distancing measures and regulations enforced by governments in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting work-from-home policies that we have undertaken, there has been additional reliance placed on our IT systems and resources. The resulting reliance on these resources, and the added need to communicate by electronic means, could increase our risk of cybersecurity incidents.

Geopolitical instability, such as the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, have been associated with an increase in cybersecurity incidents. This may result in a higher likelihood that we may experience direct or collateral consequences from cybersecurity conflicts between nation-states or other politically motivated actors targeting critical technology infrastructure.

U.S. and foreign regulators have increased their focus on cybersecurity vulnerabilities and risks, and customers and service providers are increasingly demanding more rigorous contractual certification and audit provisions regarding cybersecurity and data governance. This may result in an increase of our overall compliance burden due to increasingly onerous obligations and leading to significant expense. There may also be shorter deadlines in which to notify the authorities of data breaches and ever-increasing fines and penalties for businesses that fail to respond swiftly and appropriately to cyberattacks. Any failure to comply could also result in proceedings against us by regulatory authorities or other third parties.

We continue to increase the resources we allocate to implementing, maintaining and/or updating security systems to protect data and infrastructure and to raising security awareness among those having access to our systems. However, these security measures cannot provide absolute security and there can be no assurance that our employee training, operational, and other technical security measures or other controls will detect, prevent or remediate security or data breaches in a timely manner or otherwise prevent unauthorized access to, damage to, or interruption of our systems and operations.  

We regularly evaluate our IT systems and business continuity plan to make enhancements and periodically implement new or upgraded systems, as for instanceincluding the transition and migration of our data systems to cloud-based platforms.platforms and critical system migration. Any delay in the implementation of, or disruption in the transition to different systems could adversely affect our ability to record and report financial and management information on a timely and accurate basis.basis and could impact our operations and financial position. In addition, a

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miscalculation of the level of investment needed to ensure our technology solutions are current and up-to-date as technology advances and evolves could result in disruptions in our business should the software, hardware or maintenance of such items become out-of-date or obsolete and the costs of upgrading our cybersecurity systems and remediating damages could be substantial.  

We may also be adversely affected by security breaches related to our equipment providers and providers of third partyIT services or third-party licensed technology. As a global enterprise, we could also be impacted by existing and proposed laws and regulations, as well as government policies and practices related to cybersecurity, data privacy and data protection. Additionally, cyberattacks or other catastrophic events resulting in disruptions to or failures in power, information technology, communication systems or other critical infrastructure could result in interruptions or delays to us, our customers, or other third partythird-party operations or services, financial loss, potential liability, and damage to our reputation and could also affect our relationships with our customers, suppliers and suppliers.partners.

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We may be subject to theft, loss, or misuse of personal data about our employees, customers, or other third parties, which could increase our expenses, damage our reputation, or result in legal or regulatory proceedings.

The theft, loss, or misuse of personal data collected, used, stored, or transferredprocessed by us to run our business could result in significantly increased security costs or costs related to defending legal claims.  Global privacy legislation, including various EU regulations and directives regulating

Further, with increasing digitalization, data privacy and security, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the transmission of content using the Internet involving residents of the EU, enforcement, and policy activity in this areaprivacy-related legislations are rapidly expanding and creating a complex compliance regulatory environment.  

In particular,evolving around the requirements of the GDPR impose a higher compliance burden on us and materially increase the maximum level of fines for compliance failures from their current levels relating to, among other things, consent to process personal data of individuals, the information provided to individuals regarding the processing of their personal data, the security and confidentiality of personal data, and notifications in the event of data breaches and use of third party processors. Costs to comply with and implement these privacy-related and data protection measures may increase and may necessitate changes to our business.  In addition, our failure to comply with local and international privacy or data protection laws and regulations could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others. Failure to comply with the GDPR or other data privacy regimes could subject us to significant fines and reputational harm.

Further, privacy-related legislation is rapidly evolvingglobe which may have a negative impact on our business if interpreted or implemented in a manner that is inconsistent from country to country and inconsistent with the current policies and practices of our customers or business partners. We may also have to change the manner in which we contract with our business partners, store and transfer information and otherwise conduct our business, which could increase our costs and reduce our revenues.  In particular, the requirements of the GDPR will impose a higher compliance burden on us and materially increase the maximum level of fines for compliance failures from their current levels. Costs to comply with and implement these privacy-related and data protection measures could be significant.  In addition, our failure to comply with local and international privacy or data protection laws and regulations could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others.

Our business is dependent in large part on continued growth in the industries and segments into which our products are sold and on our ability to retain existing customers and attract new ones. A market decline in any of these industries, our inability to retain and attract customers, or customer demand for our products which differs from our projections, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

The demand for our products depends significantly on the demand for our customers’ end products.  Growth of demand in the industries and segments into which our products are sold fluctuates significantly and is driven by a variety of factors, including consumer spending, consumer preferences, the development and acceptance of new technologies and prevailing economic conditions. Changes in our customers’ markets and in our customers’ respective shares in such markets could result in slower growth and a decline in demand for our products. In addition, if projected industry growth rates do not materialize as forecasted, our spending on process and product development ahead of market acceptance could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is dependent upon our ability to retain existing customers. In 20192022 our largest customer, Apple, accounted for 17.6%16.8% of our total revenues. While we do not believe to be dependent on any one customer or group of customers, the loss of key customers or important sockets at key customers could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.  operations and financial condition.  

Our existing customers’ product strategy may change from time to time and/or product specifications may change on short-time product life cycles and we have no certainty that our business, financial position and results of operations will not be affected. Our business is also dependent upon our ability to attract new customers. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in attracting and retaining new customers, or in adequately projecting customer demand for our products. Our failure to do so could materially adversely affect our business, financial positioncondition and results of operations.

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Market dynamics have driven, and continue to drive us, to a strategic repositioning.

In recent years, we have undertaken several initiatives to reposition our business. Our strategies to improve our results of operations and financial condition have led us, and may in the future lead us, to acquire businesses that we believe to be complementary to our own, or to divest ourselves of or wind down activities that we believe do not serve our longer term business plans. Our potential acquisition strategies depend in part on our ability to identify suitable acquisition targets, finance their acquisition, obtain approval by our

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shareholders and obtain required regulatory and other approvals. Our potential divestiture strategies depend in part on our ability to compete and to identify the activities in which we should no longer engage, obtain the relevant approvals pursuant to our governance process and then determine and execute appropriate methods to divest of them.

We are constantly monitoring our product portfolio and cannot exclude that additional steps in this repositioning process may be required. Furthermore, we cannot assure that any strategic repositioning of our business, including executed and possible future acquisitions or dispositions, will be successful and will not result in impairment, restructuring charges and other related closure costs.

Acquisitions and divestitures involve a number of risks that could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition, including:  we may be unableincluding the inability for us to successfully integrate businesses or teams that we acquire with our culture and strategies on a timely basis or at all;all, and we may be requiredthe potential requirement for us to record charges related to the goodwill or other long-term assets associated with the acquired businesses. There can be no assurance that we will be able to achieve the full scope of the benefits we expect from a particular acquisition, divestiture or investment. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may suffer if we fail to coordinate our resources effectively to manage both our existing businesses and any acquired businesses. In addition, the financing of future acquisitions or divestitures may negatively impact our financial position, including our ability to pay a dividend and/or repurchase our shares, and credit rating and we could be required to raise additional funding.

Other risks associated with acquisitions include:include the assumption of potential liabilities, disclosed or undisclosed, associated with the business acquired, which liabilities may exceed the amount of indemnification available from the seller;seller, potential inaccuracies in the financials of the business acquired;acquired, and our ability to retain customers of an acquired entity, its business or industrialize an acquired process or technology. Identified risks associated with divestitures include:include loss of activities and technologies that may have complemented our remaining businesses or operations;operations and loss of important services provided by key employees that are assigned to divested activities.

We depend on collaboration with other semiconductor industry companies, research organizations, universities, customers and suppliers to further our R&D efforts, and our business and prospects could be materially adversely affected by the failure or termination of such alliances.

Our success depends on our ability to introduce innovative new products and technologies to the marketplace on a timely basis. In light of the high levels of investment required for R&D activities, we depend in certain instances on collaborations with other semiconductor industry companies, research organizations, universities, customers and suppliers to develop or access new technologies.

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Such collaboration provides us with a number of important benefits, including the sharing of costs, reductions in our own capital requirements, acquisitions of technical know-how and access to additional production capacities. However, there can be no assurance that our collaboration efforts will be successful and allow us to develop and access new technologies in due time, in a cost-effective manner and/or to meet customer demands. If a particular collaboration terminates before our intended goals are accomplished we may incur additional unforeseen costs, and our business and prospects could be adversely affected. Furthermore, if we are unable to develop or otherwise access new technologies, whether independently or in collaboration with another industry participant, we may fail to keep pace with the rapid technology advances in the semiconductor industry, our participation in the overall semiconductor industry may decrease and we may also lose market share.

We depend on patents to protect our rights to our technology and may face claims of infringing the IP rights of others.

We depend on patents and other IP rights to protect our products and our manufacturing processes against misappropriation by others. The process of seeking patent protection can be long and expensive, and there can be no assurance that that we will receive patents from currently pending or future applications. Even if patents are issued, they may not be of sufficient scope or strength to provide meaningful protection or any commercial advantage. In addition, effective IP protection may be unavailable or limited in some countries. Our ability to enforce one or more of our patents could be adversely affected by changes in patent laws, laws in certain foreign jurisdictions that may not effectively protect our intellectual propertyIP rights or by ineffective enforcement of laws in such jurisdictions. Competitors may also develop technologies that are protected by patents and other IP and therefore either be unavailable to us or be made available to us subject to adverse terms and conditions. We have in the past used our patent portfolio to negotiate broad patent cross-licenses with many of our competitors

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enabling us to design, manufacture and sell semiconductor products, without concern of infringing patents held by such competitors. We may not in the future be able to obtain such licenses or other rights to protect necessary IP on favorable terms for the conduct of our business, and such failure may adversely impact our results of operations. Such cross-license agreements expire from time to time and there is no assurance that we can or we will extend them.

We have from time to time received, and may in the future receive, communications alleging possible infringement of third partythird-party patents and other IP rights. Some of those claims are made by so-called non-practicing entities against which we are unable to assert our own patent portfolio to lever licensing terms and conditions. Competitors with whom we do not have patent cross-license agreements may also develop technologies that are protected by patents and other IP rights and which may be unavailable to us or only made available on unfavorable terms and conditions. We may therefore become involved in costly litigation brought against us regarding patents and other IP rights. See Note 26 to our Consolidated Financial Statements. IP litigation may also involve our customers who in turn may seek indemnification from us should we not prevail and/or who may decide to curtail their orders for those of our products over which claims have been asserted. Such lawsuits may therefore have a material adverse effect on our business. We may be forced to stop producing substantially all or some of our products or to license the underlying technology upon economically unfavorable terms and conditions or we may be required to pay damages for the prior use of third partythird-party IP and/or face an injunction.

The outcome of IP litigation is inherently uncertain and may divert the efforts and attention of our management and other specialized technical personnel. Such litigation can result in significant costs and, if not resolved in our favor, could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We operate in many jurisdictions with highly complex and varied tax regimes. Changes in tax rules, new or revised legislation or the outcome of tax assessments and audits could cause a material adverse effect on our results.

We operate in many jurisdictions with highly complex and varied tax regimes. Changes in tax rules, new or revised legislation or the outcome of tax assessments and audits could have a material adverse effect on our results.

In 2021, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the G20 Inclusive Framework on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) agreed to a two-pillar solution to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy. Pillar I is a set of proposals to revisit tax allocation rules in a changed economy. The intention is that a portion of a multinationals' residual profit is taxed in the jurisdiction where revenue is sourced.

Pillar II enforces a global minimum corporate income tax at an effective rate of 15% for large multinationals. On December 15, 2022, the Council of the European Union formally adopted the directive implementing the minimum taxation at EU level (“Pillar II Directive”). EU Member States will now have to transpose the Pillar II Directive into their national laws before December 31, 2023 and they will have to apply the Pillar II measures in respect of the fiscal years beginning on or after December 31, 2023. As of December 31, 2022, none of the 137 Inclusive Framework member states has passed the model rules as part of their national laws. The tax impact of the Pillar I and II rules is currently being analyzed to determine the potential effect on our results and to ensure compliance when the legislation is effective. Sufficient information is not currently available to estimate the quantitative impact on the Company's tax position as per December 31, 2022.

Our tax rate is variable and depends on changes in the level of operating results within various local jurisdictions and on changes in the applicable taxation rates of these jurisdictions, as well as changes in estimated tax provisions due to new events. We currently receive certain tax benefits or benefit from net operating losses cumulated in prior years in some countries, and these benefits may not be available in the future due to changes in the local jurisdictions or credits on net operating losses being no longer available due to either full utilization or expiration of the statute of limitations in such jurisdictions. As a result, our effective tax rate could increase and/or our benefits from carrying forward net operating losses could affect our deferred tax assets in certain countries in the coming years. In addition, the acquisition or divestiture of businesses in certain jurisdictions could materially affect our effective tax rate.

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We evaluate our deferred tax asset position and the need for a valuation allowance on a regular basis. The ultimate realization of deferred tax assets is dependent upon, among other things, our ability to generate future taxable income that is sufficient to utilize in certain jurisdictions loss carry-forwards or tax credits before their expiration or our ability to implement prudent and feasible tax optimization strategies. The recorded amount of total deferred tax assets could be reduced, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial position, if our estimates of projected future taxable income and benefits from available tax strategies are reduced as a result of a change in business condition or in management’s plans or due to other factors, such as changes in tax laws and regulations.  

We are subject to the possibility of loss contingencies arising out of tax claims, assessment of uncertain tax positions and provisions for specifically identified income tax exposures. We are also subject to tax audits in certain jurisdictions. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in resolving potential tax claims that result from these audits, which could result in material adjustments in our tax positions. We record provisions on the basis of the best current understanding; however, we could be required to record additional provisions in future periods for amounts that cannot currently be assessed. Our failure to do so and/or the need to increase our provisions for such claims could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and our financial position.

Our operating results can also vary significantly due to impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets incurred in the course of acquisitions and equity investments, as well as to impairment of tangible assets due to changes in the business environment.

Our operating results can vary significantly due to impairment of goodwill, other intangible assets and equity investments booked pursuant to acquisitions and the timeframe required to foster and realize synergies thereof, joint venture agreements and the purchase of technologies and licenses from third parties, as well as to impairment of tangible assets due to changes in the business environment. Because the market for our products is characterized by rapidly changing technologies, significant changes in the semiconductor industry, and the potential failure of our business initiatives, our future cash flows may not support the value of goodwill, tangible assets and other intangibles registered in our Consolidated Balance Sheets.consolidated balance sheets. See “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects — Overview —Prospects— Critical Accounting Policies Using Significant Estimates — Impairment of goodwill”, “— Intangible assets subject to amortization”, “— Tangible assets” and “— Income (loss)“Item 4. Information on Equity-method Investments”the Company — Property, Plants and Equipment”.

We receive public funding, and a reduction in the amount available to us or demands for repayment could increase our costs and impact our results of operations.

ToWe have in the past obtained public funding, primarily to support our proprietary R&D for technology investments and investments in cooperative R&D ventures, we have in the past obtained public funding and expect to obtain public funding in the future, mainly from French, Italian and EU governmental entities. The public funding we receive is subject to periodic review by the relevant authorities and there can be no assurance that we will continue to benefit from such programs at current levels or that sufficient alternative funding will be available if we lose such support. If any of the public funding programs we participate in are curtailed or discontinued and we do not reduce the relevant R&D costs, this could have a material adverse effect on our business. Furthermore, to receive public funding, we enter into agreements which require compliance with extensive regulatory requirements and set forth certain conditions relating to the funded programs. If we fail to meet the regulatory requirements or applicable conditions, we may, under certain circumstances, be required to refund previously received amounts, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. If there are changes in the public funding we receive this could increase the net costs for us to continue investing in R&D at current levels and could result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

A change in the landscape in public funding may also affect our business. For example, there are currently proposals within Europe to enact a European Chips Act, and similar proposals in other regions, which may provide public funding towards manufacturing activities of semiconductors. It is yet to be seen whether this would impact the amount of public funding currently available to us for our R&D investments and ventures, but any reduction in said funding could result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations. Further, this may result in new or existing competitors benefitting from such funding and could also have an impact on the competitive landscape in our industry.

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Some of our production processes and materials are environmentally sensitive, which could expose us to liability and increase our costs due to environmental, health and safety laws and regulations or because of damage to the environment.

We are subject to environmental, health and safety laws and regulations that govern various aspects, including the use, storage, discharge and disposal of chemicals, gases and other hazardous substances used in our operations. Compliance with such laws and regulations could adversely affect our manufacturing costs or product sales by requiring us to acquire costly equipment, materials or greenhouse gas allowances, or to incur other significant expenses in adapting our manufacturing processes or waste and emission disposal processes. Furthermore, environmental claims or our failure to comply with present or future regulations could result in the assessment of damages or imposition of fines against us, suspension of production or a cessation of operations. Failure by us to control the use of, or adequately restrict the discharge of, chemicals or hazardous substances could subject us to future liabilities.

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Climate change and related sustainability regulations and initiatives, including our commitment to become carbon neutral by 2027, could place additional burden on us and our operations.

As climate change issues become more pronounced, we may correspondingly face increased regulation and also expectations from our stakeholders to take actions beyond existing regulatory requirements to minimize our impact on the environment and mitigate climate change related effects. The semiconductor manufacturing process has historically contributed to direct greenhouse gas emissions by utilizing perfluorocarbons, which may lead to new or increased regulation of such compounds. In order to address such regulation, we may be required to adapt our production processes or purchase additional equipment or carbon offsets, leading to increased costs. As of the end of 2022, we are on track towards our goal to become carbon neutral by 2027, which includes two specific targets: compliance with the 1.5°C scenario defined at the Paris COP21 by 2025, implying a 50% reduction of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2018, and the sourcing of 100% renewable energy by 2027 (as further explained below in “Item 4. – Environmental, Health and Safety Matters”).

To meet these additional requirements, we maywill need to continue to deploy additional equipment, introduce process changes, utilize alternative suppliers and materials, and take other similar actions, some or all of which may require us to incur additional costs which could result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations and our financial position.condition. In addition, if we fail to meet these expectations, or foster additional sustainability initiatives, we may experience reputational risk which could impact our ability to attract and retain customers, employees, and investors.

Further, our sites, as well as those of our partners along the supply chain, may be exposed to changing and/or increasing physical risks resulting from climate change that are either chronic (induced by longer-term shifts in climate patterns, such as sea level rise or constraints in the availability of water, changing temperature, wind or precipitation patterns) or acute (event-drive such as cyclones, hurricanes or heat waves). In the context of the transition to a lower-carbon economy, we will likely be exposed to further policy, legal, technology, and market transition risks. We have already seen further policy developments in this area in the form of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 18, 2020 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (the “EU Taxonomy Regulation”), which entered into force on July 12, 2020. As a result of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, we must disclose information on how and to what extent our activities are associated with economic activities that qualify as environmentally sustainable. See “Item 4. Information on the Company – Environmental, Health and Safety Matters”.

Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 14, 2022 amending Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, Directive 2004/109/EC, Directive 2006/43/EC and Directive 2013/34/EU, as regards corporate sustainability reporting (the “CSRD”), which entered into force on January 5, 2023 will strengthen the rules regarding social and environmental information that will be required to be reported. The CSRD seeks to provide investors and other stakeholders with access to the information they need to assess investment risks arising from climate change and other sustainability topics. The CSRD further makes it mandatory for us to have an audit of the sustainability information that we report on. If our disclosure metrics relating to climate change and other sustainability topics are lower than those of our peers in the industry, this may lead to reputational risk which may lead to onward financial repercussions such as a decrease in share price or difficulty in raising capital.

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Loss of key employees and the inability to continuously recruit and retain qualified employees could hurt our competitive position.

Our success depends to a significant extent upon our key executives and R&D, engineering, marketing, sales, manufacturing, support and other personnel. Our success also depends upon our ability to continue to identify, attract, retain and motivate highly trained and skilled engineering, technical and professional personnel in a competitive recruitment environment.environment, as well our ability to ensure the smooth succession and continuity of business with newly hired and promoted personnel. For instance, in highly specialized areas, it may become more difficult to retain employees. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, work-from-home arrangements and a limitation on social and professional interaction has expanded the competition in employee recruitment and retention.

Our employee hiring and retention also depend on our ability to build and maintain a diverse and inclusive workplace culture and be viewed as an employer of choice. We intend to continue to devote significant resources to recruit, train and retain qualified employees, however, we may not be able to attract, obtain and retain these employees, which may affect our growth in future years and the loss of the services of any of these key personnel without adequate replacement or the inability to attract new qualified personnel could have a material adverse effect on us.

The interests of our controlling shareholder, which is in turn indirectly controlled by the French and Italian governments, may conflict with other investors’ interests. In addition, our controlling shareholder may sell our existing common shares or issue financial instruments exchangeable into our common shares at any time.

We have been informedunderstand that as of December 31, 2019,2022, STMicroelectronics Holding N.V. (“ST Holding”), owned 250,704,754 shares, or approximately 27.5%, of our issued common shares. ST Holding may therefore be in a position to effectively control the outcome of decisions submitted to the vote at our shareholders’ meetings, including but not limited to the appointment of the members of our Managing and Supervisory Boards.

We have been informed that ST Holding’s shareholders, each of which is ultimately controlled by the French or Italian government, are party to a shareholders agreement (the “STH Shareholders Agreement”), which governs relations between them. We are not a party to the STH Shareholders Agreement. See “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions — Major Shareholders”. The STH Shareholders Agreement includes provisions requiring the unanimous approval by the shareholders of ST Holding before ST Holding can vote its shares in our share capital, which may give rise to a conflict of interest between our interests and investors’ interests, on the one hand, and the (political) interests of ST Holding’s shareholders, on the other hand. Our ability to issue new shares or other securities giving access to our shares may be limited by ST Holding’s desire to maintain its shareholding at a certain level and our ability to buy back shares may be limited by ST Holding due to a Dutch law requiring one or more shareholders acquiring 30% or more of our voting rights to launch a tender offer for our outstanding shares.

The STH Shareholders Agreement also permits our respective French and Italian indirect shareholders to causedirect ST Holding to dispose of its stake in us at any time, thereby reducing the current level of their respective indirect interests in our common shares. Sales of our common shares or the issuance of financial instruments exchangeable into our common shares or any announcements concerning a potential sale by ST Holding could materially impact the market price of our common shares depending on the timing and size of such sale, market conditions as well as a variety of other factors.

Our shareholder structure and our preference shares may deter a change of control.

We have an option agreement in place with an independent foundation, whereby the foundation can acquire preference shares in the event of actions which the board of the independent foundation determines would be contrary to our interests, our shareholders and our other stakeholders and which in the event of a creeping acquisition or offer for our common shares are not supported by our Managing Board and Supervisory Board. In addition, our shareholders have authorized us to issue additional capital within the limits of the authorization by our Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (“AGM”), subject to the requirements of our Articles of

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Association, without the need to seek a specific shareholder resolution for each capital increase. Accordingly, an issue of preference shares or new shares may make it more difficult for a shareholder to obtain control over our General Meetinggeneral meeting of Shareholders.shareholders. These anti-takeover provisions could substantially impede the ability of our shareholders to benefit from a change in control and, as a result, may materially adversely affect

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the market price of our ordinary shares and our investors’ ability to realize any potential change of control premium. See “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions — Major Shareholders — Preference Shares”.

Any decision to reduce or discontinue paying cash dividends to our shareholders could adversely impact the market price of our common shares.

On an annual basis, our Supervisory Board, upon the proposal of the Managing Board, may propose the distribution of a cash dividend to the general meeting of our shareholders. See “Item 8. Dividend Policy”. Any reduction or discontinuance by us of the payment of cash dividends at historical levels could cause the market price of our common shares to decline.

We are required to prepare financial statements under IFRS and we also prepare Consolidated Financial Statements under U.S. GAAP, and such dual reporting may impair the clarity of our financial reporting.

We use U.S. GAAP as our primary set of reporting standards. Applying U.S. GAAP in our financial reporting is designed to ensure the comparability of our results to those of our competitors, as well as the continuity of our reporting, thereby providing our stakeholders and potential investors with a clear understanding of our financial performance. As we are incorporated in The Netherlands and our shares are listed in Europe on Euronext Paris and on the Borsa Italiana, we are subject to EU regulations requiring us to also report our results of operations and financial statements using IFRS.

As a result of the obligation to report our financial statements under IFRS, we prepare our results of operations using both U.S. GAAP and IFRS, which are currently not consistent. Such dual reporting can materially increase the complexity of our financial communications. Our financial conditionposition and results of operations reported in accordance with IFRS will differ from our financial conditionposition and results of operations reported in accordance with U.S. GAAP, which could give rise to confusion in the marketplace.

There are inherent limitations on the effectiveness of our controls.

There can be no assurance that a system of internal control over financial reporting, including one determined to be effective, will prevent or detect all misstatements. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance regarding financial statement preparation and presentation. Projections of the results of any evaluation of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting into future periods are subject to inherent risk. The relevant controls may become inadequate due to changes in circumstances or the degree of compliance with the underlying policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Because we are subject to the corporate law of The Netherlands, U.S. investors might have more difficulty protecting their interests in a court of law or otherwise than if we were a U.S. company.

Our corporate affairs are governed by our Articles of Association and by the laws governing corporations incorporated in The Netherlands. The rights of our investors and the responsibilities of members of our Managing and Supervisory Boards under Dutch law are not as clearly established as under the rules of some U.S. jurisdictions. Therefore, U.S. investors may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions by our management, members of our Managing and Supervisory Boards or our controlling shareholders than U.S. investors would have if we were incorporated in the United States.

Our executive offices and a substantial portion of our assets are located outside the United States. In addition, ST Holding and most members of our Managing and Supervisory Boards are residents of jurisdictions other than the United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for shareholders to effect service within the United States upon us, ST Holding, or members of our Managing or Supervisory Boards. It may also be difficult or impossible for shareholders to enforce outside the United States judgments obtained against such persons in U.S. courts, or to enforce in U.S. courts judgments obtained against such persons in courts in jurisdictions outside the United States. This could be true in any legal action, including actions predicated upon the civil liability provisions of U.S. securities laws. In addition, it may be difficult or impossible for shareholders to enforce, in original actions brought in courts in jurisdictions located outside the United States, rights predicated upon U.S. securities laws.

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We have been advised by Dutch counsel that the United States and The Netherlands do not currently have a treaty providing for reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments (other than arbitration awards) in civil and commercial matters. With respect to choice of court agreements in civil or commercial matters, it is noted that the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements entered into force in theThe Netherlands, but has not entered into force in the United States. As a consequence, a final judgment for the payment of money rendered by any federal or state court in the United States based on civil liability, whether or not predicated solely upon the federal securities laws of the United States, will not be enforceable in The Netherlands.  However, if the party in whose favor such final judgment is rendered brings a new suit in a competent court in The Netherlands, such party may submit to The Netherlands court the final judgment that has been rendered in the United States. If The Netherlands court finds that the jurisdiction of the federal or state court in the United States has been based on grounds that are internationally acceptable and that proper legal procedures that are in accordance with the Dutch standards of proper administration of justice including sufficient safeguards (behoorlijke rechtspleging) have been observed, the court in The Netherlands would, under current practice, in principle give binding effect to the final judgment that has been rendered in the United States unless such judgment contradicts The Netherlands’ public policy and provided that the judgment by the foreign court is not incompatible with a decision rendered between the same parties by a Dutch court, or with a previous decision rendered between the same parties by a foreign court in a dispute that concerns the same subject and is based on the same cause, provided that the previous decision qualifies for acknowledgment in theThe Netherlands. Even if such a foreign judgment is given binding effect, a claim based thereon may, however, still be rejected if the foreign judgment is not or no longer formally enforceable.

History and Development of the Company

STMicroelectronics N.V. was formed and incorporated in 1987 as a result of the combination of the semiconductor business of SGS Microelettronica (then owned by Società Finanziaria Telefonica (S.T.E.T.), an Italian corporation) and the non-military business of Thomson Semiconducteurs (then owned by the former Thomson-CSF, now Thales, a French corporation). We completed our initial public offering in December 1994 with simultaneous listings on the Bourse de Paris (now known as “Euronext Paris”) and the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). In 1998, we also listed our shares on the Borsa Italiana S.p.A. (“Borsa Italiana”).

We operated as SGS-Thomson Microelectronics N.V. until May 1998, when we changed our name to STMicroelectronics N.V. We are organized under the laws of The Netherlands, with our corporate legal seat in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and our head offices at WTC Schiphol Airport, Schiphol Boulevard 265, 1118 BH Schiphol, The Netherlands. Our telephone number there is +31-20-654-3210. Our headquarters and operational offices are managed through our wholly owned subsidiary, STMicroelectronics International N.V., and are located at 39 Chemin du Champ des Filles, 1228 Plan-Les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland. Our main telephone number there is +41-22-929-2929. Our agent for service of process in the United States related to our registration under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, is Corporation Service Company (CSC), 80 State Street, Albany, New York, 12207. Our operations are also conducted through our various subsidiaries, which are organized and operated according to the laws of their country of incorporation, and consolidated by STMicroelectronics N.V.

Business Overview

We are a global independent semiconductor company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of products including discrete and general purpose components, application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), full‑custom devices and semi-custom devices and application-specific standard products (“ASSPs”) for analog, digital and mixed-signal applications.  

Our diverse product portfolio benefits from a unique, strong foundation of proprietary and differentiated leading-edge technologies. We use all of the prevalent function-oriented process technologies, including complementary metal-on silicon oxide semiconductors (“CMOS”), bipolar and non-volatile memory technologies.  In addition, by combining basic processes, we have developed advanced systems-oriented technologies that enable us to produce differentiated and application-specific products, including our pioneering fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (“FD-SOI”) technology offering superior performance and power efficiency compared to bulk CMOS, bipolar CMOS technologies (“Bi-CMOS”) and radio frequency silicon-on-insulator (“RF-SOI”) for mixed-signal and high-frequency applications, as well as a combination of Bipolar, CMOS and DMOS (“BCD”) and vertically integrated power (“VIPower”) technologies for smart power applications, silicon carbide (“SiC”) and gallium-nitride (“GaN”) for high-efficiency systems, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (“MEMS”) technologies for sensors and Actuators, embedded memory technologies for our microcontrollers and differentiated Imaging Technologies for our imaging solutions.  For our 2019 Results of Operations, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects — Results of Operations — Segment Information”.

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Strategy

We are a global semiconductor leader, serving over 100,000 customers across a broad range of markets: automotive, industrial, personal electronics, and communications equipment, computers and peripherals. We develop industry-leading technologies that allow us to provide products and solutions that meet and exceed the needs and expectations of our customers now and into the future.

Our strategy focuses on long-term value creation for the Company and its affiliated enterprises and takes into account the short-, medium- and longer-term evolution of the markets we serve and the environment and opportunities we see.

We are focused on application areas which are expected to experience solid growth rates driven by broad, long-term trends in electronic systems. Key for us among these trends are Smart Mobility, power and energy applications, Internet of Things (“IoT”) and 5G. These trends require enablers such as autonomous systems, robotics, securely connected machines and personal devices, electrification of automobiles and infrastructure, advanced communications equipment and networks and more power efficient systems. These enablers drive in turn the demand for the electronic components we develop and manufacture.

Our products are used in a wide variety of applications for the four end-markets we address: automotive, industrial, personal electronics and communications equipment, computers and peripherals. For the automotive and industrial markets we address a wide customer base, particularly in industrial, with a broad and deep product portfolio. In personal electronics and communications equipment, computers and peripherals we have a selective approach both in terms of the customers we serve, as well as in the technologies and products we offer.offer, while leveraging our broad portfolio to address high-volume applications.

Our diverse product portfolio includes discrete and general purpose components, application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), full‑custom devices and semi-custom devices and application-specific standard products (“ASSPs”) for analog, digital and mixed-signal applications. It benefits from a unique, strong foundation of proprietary and differentiated leading-edge technologies. We use all of the prevalent function-oriented process technologies, including complementary metal-on silicon oxide semiconductors (“CMOS”), bipolar and non-volatile memory technologies. In addition, by combining basic processes, we have developed

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Togetheradvanced systems-oriented technologies that enable us to produce differentiated and application-specific products, including fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (“FD-SOI”) technology offering superior performance and power efficiency compared to bulk CMOS, bipolar CMOS (“Bi-CMOS”) and radio frequency silicon-on-insulator (“RF-SOI”) for mixed-signal and high-frequency applications, as well as a combination of Bipolar, CMOS and DMOS (“BCD”), vertically integrated power (“VIPower”), and intelligent integrated gallium-nitride (STI²GaN) technologies for smart power applications, Power MOSFET, silicon carbide (“SiC”) and gallium-nitride (“GaN”) for high-efficiency systems, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (“MEMS”) technologies for sensors and actuators, embedded memory technologies for our microcontrollers and differentiated optical sensing technologies for our optical sensing solutions. For our 2022 Results of Operations, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects — Results of Operations — Segment Information”.

Strategy

At ST, we are over 50,000 creators and makers of semiconductor technologies mastering the semiconductor supply chain with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. As an integrated device manufacturer, we work with more than 200,000 customers and thousands of partners to design and build products, solutions, and ecosystems that address their challenges and opportunities, and the need to support a more sustainable world. Our technologies enable smarter mobility, more efficient power and energy management, and the wide-scale deployment of the Internet of Things (“IoT”) and connectivity. We are committed to achieving our goal to become carbon neutral by 2027.

Our strategy focuses on long-term value creation for the Company and its affiliated enterprises and takes into account the short-, medium- and longer-term evolution of the markets we serve and the environment and opportunities we see. It stems from key long-term enablers: Smart Mobility, where we provide innovative solutions to help our customers we enable smartermake driving by making vehicles safer, more environmentally friendlygreener and more connected.  Weconnected for everyone; Power & Energy: our technology and solutions enable customers to increase energy efficiency everywhere and support the use of renewable energy sources; IoT & connectivity supporting the proliferation of smart, industry helpingconnected IoT devices with products, solutions and ecosystems to make factoriesdevelopment fast and workplaces more efficient, more flexibleeasy for our customers.

We are focused on application areas which are expected to experience solid growth rates driven by broad, long-term trends in electronic systems. These trends require enablers such as autonomous systems, robotics, securely connected machines and safer.  We enable smarter homespersonal devices, digitalization and cities making houses, buildingselectrification of automobiles and city infrastructure, more efficient, move convenientadvanced communications equipment and networks and more secure.  We help make everything more intelligent, more connectedpower efficient systems. These enablers drive in turn the demand for the electronic components we develop and more secure. In doing this we ensure that ST is found everywhere microelectronics make a positive and innovative contribution to people’s lives.  By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented.manufacture.

Product Information

Semiconductors are electronic components that serve as the building blocks inside modern electronic systems and equipment. Semiconductors, generally known as “chips,”“chips” combine multiple transistors on a single piece of material to form a complete electronic circuit. With our portfolio of semiconductor products, we serve customers across the spectrum of electronics applications with innovative solutions.

We have a portfolio of power products and analog products, including sensors, signal channel devices and output power stages - discrete and/or integrated - as well as complete power management blocks. Our analog products, including both general purpose and application specific, can fulfill the needs of a wide range of designs and systems.  

We also have digital products that are at the heart of electronics systems, including microcontrollers and microprocessors, ASICs and specialized imaging sensors.optical sensing solutions. Our full set of microcontrollers and microprocessors includes one of the industry’s broadest ranges of general-purpose devices serving all market segments, microprocessors addressing the industrial market, secure microcontrollers for mobile devices, wearables, banking, identification, industrial, automotive and IoT markets and a series of embedded microprocessorsprocessing solutions for our strategic end-markets (automotive, industrial, personal electronics and communications equipment, computers and peripherals).

In addition, we have historically beenWe are one of the leading suppliers and innovators in the domain of semiconductor devices dedicated to automotive applications. We have a portfolio spanning complex power train, audio and infotainment devices and body and convenience dedicated and standard functions as well as a broad offering of components for advanced driver assistance systems (“ADAS”), dedicated automotive microcontrollers, MEMS automotive

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sensors and power driver,drivers, including SiC and GaN devices for hybrid and electric cars. The products designed and manufactured specifically for automotive applications are complemented by a large range of “automotive grade” standard products, both tested and guaranteed to perform under stringent automotive environmental conditions.

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On top of the product design R&D spending, our principal investment and resource allocation decisions in the semiconductor business area are for expenditures on technology R&D as well as capital investments in front-end and back-end manufacturing facilities, which are planned at the corporate level; therefore, our product groups share common R&D for process technology and manufacturing capacity for some of their products.

Our reportable segments are as follows:

“Others” includes items such as unused capacity charges, impairmentEffective July 1, 2022, the Low Power RF business unit was transferred from AMS (within the Analog sub-group) to MDG (within the Microcontrollers and restructuring charges and other related closure costs, phase out and start-up costs, and other unallocated expenses such as: management reorganization expenses, strategic or special research and development programs, certain corporate-level operating expenses, patent claims and litigations, and other costs that are not allocated to product groups, as well as operating earnings of Subsystems, assembly services and other revenue.Memories sub-group) with no significant impact on our segment reporting. Prior year periods have been adjusted accordingly.  

Below is a description of our main categories of products.

Automotive and Discrete Group (ADG)

Dedicated Automotive ICs

We are a top automotive semiconductor vendor supplying innovative solutions to leading suppliers of carmakersthe automotive industry worldwide. We combine an unparalleled platform of advanced technologies with an unswerving commitment to quality, and a thorough understanding of the automotive market gained through close collaboration with leading customers. Our automotive-solutions portfolio is enabling the electrification and digitalization of the car and covers all key application areas in the car:including Powertrain, Chassis, Safety and Security, including ADAS, Body Electronics, Telematics & Infotainment and Connectivity.

For Powertrain, we provide silicon solutions for the full range of engine-management systems: from motorbikes and scooters to the most advanced drive-by-wire solutions. Developments in engine management are driven by both government emission regulations and energy concerns. We continue to work closely with major automotive OEMs, as we have for decades, to reduce fuel consumption and CO₂ emission via advanced technologies such as Variable Valve Timing and Gasoline Direct Injection and Battery Management for hybrid and full electric cars. Due to the cooperation with certain leading car makers, our microcontrollers are currently in the electrical engines of leading hybrid and electric cars. The first automotive microcontrollers to feature multiple Arm^® Cortex^®-R52 cores with on-chip non-volatile memory for safe, real-time performance, our Stellar microcontrollers provide advanced connectivity and security features to support the transition to service-oriented automotive system architectures.

With regards to Chassis, we provide a broad range of solutions to increase vehicle-occupant safety, including devices for airbags, anti-lock brakes, traction control, electric power steering and active suspension systems. We are a leading supplier of chips for automotive airbags and anti-lock braking systems, which currently represent the largest portion of automotive safety electronics.

We are a leading player in ADAS that help avoid or minimize the severity of traffic accidents. We manufacture leading-edge products for vision and radar (both short range 24GHz24 GHz and long range 77GHz)77 GHz) based systems that assist the driver with capabilities such as lane-departure warning, forward-collision warning, vision/radar fusion and pedestrian detection including specific modular solutions for the mass market. We produce vision based ADAS solutions fully compliant with level 2+ and level 3 autonomous systems and we are prototyping ASICs fully compliant with level 4 autonomous systems. We also produce V2X (vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure) connectivity solution, and we are working on our first-generation modular offering for V2X (vehicle-to-vehiclesolutions to grant full connectivity using multiple channels such as Wi-Fi, radar and vehicle-to-infrastructure) as society progresses toward semi- and fully-autonomous vehicles and Imaging Technologies for vehicles.GNSS.

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Today’s car body electronics involve a myriad of inter-networked electronic systems, from dome and door-zone controls, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) systems, and seat controls to wiper and lighting controls. The penetration of electronics in the car is increasing, all the time, as are the requirements for improved reliability and diagnostic capabilities. We address the concept of the “smart” junction box, which is an intelligent power and switching center for the vehicle that integrates functions and features from exterior and cabin lighting to wipers, with a comprehensive architecture that consists of upgradable hardware and software modules. With our proprietary VIPower silicon technology and thorough application knowledge, we have become a market leader in automotive lighting electronics, offering solutions for both exterior and interior lighting, from incandescent bulbs to LED- or HID -based systems.

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Our car infotainment and navigationtelematics portfolio includes complete turnkey solutions for digital radio, navigation and telematics, and wireless connectivity in the car. We have leveraged our experience of more than 30 years, at the forefront of AM/FM radio technology to lead in digital radio. We produce all of the semiconductor components for car radios — from the tuner through the baseband to multimedia processing and playback. Our car-radio systems are optimized for harsh reception environments and minimized power consumption. Our portfolio of products for navigation also includes a family of System-on-Chip solutions capable of receiving signals from multiple satellite navigation systems including BeiDou, GPS, GALILEO, GLONASS and QZSS, to improve user position accuracy and navigation in poor satellite visibility conditions, such as in urban canyons.

Discrete and Power Transistor

Discrete and power transistors families include both power products and protection devices serving our strategic end markets (automotive, industrial, personal electronics and communications equipment, computers and peripherals).

Leading-edge power technologies for both high-voltage and low-voltage applications combined with a full package range and innovative die bonding technologies exemplify our innovation in power transistors. Our portfolio includes silicon MOSFETs ranging from 35V12 to 18001700 V, SiC MOSFETs from 650 to 2200 V featuring the industry’s highest temperature rating of 200 °C,200°C, IGBTs with breakdown voltages ranging from 350 V300 to 13001700 V and a wide range of power bipolar transistors and, more recently, GaN–on- silicon components to address the 5G market.transistors. We are expanding our offering based on wide bandgap materials with a full range of GaN-based power device solutions targeting a wide variety of applications. Our portfolio of protection devices supports all industry requirements for electrical overstress and electrostatic surge protection, lightning surge protection and automotive protection. Our protection devices have passed all certifications, meeting or exceeding international protection standards for electrical hazards on electronics boards found in the demanding automotive, industrial, personal electronics and communications equipment, computers and peripherals.

Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group (AMS)

Analog, Smart Power, Low Power RF, Touch Screen Controllers

We develop a broad range of innovative Power, Smart Powerpower, smart power and Analoganalog ICs, to serve markets such as those relating to smart grid, cloud computing, automation, portablepersonal electronics and power conversion. These product families include:  include Industrial ASICs and ASSPs,, covering motion control, power and energy management and automation; factory automation, General Purpose Analog Products,, which includes high end analog front-end products as well as RF ICs;standard interfaces and Custom Analog ICs,, mainly power management ICs (“PMIC”) for data storage, servers and portable power management devices. In 2019,2022, we made a large inroad in the market offurther deployed wireless charging ICs forsolutions and enlarged our offering to cover low to high power products and across personal electronics applications from smartphones to wearables and weindustrial battery management enabling fast charging applications. We also expanded our presence in the automotive and industrial markets with our Galvanic Isolated Gate Drivers (STGAP product family)(also known as STGAP Family).

We also develop a comprehensive range of operational amplifiers (both low-voltage and high-voltage), comparators and current-sense amplifiers. In addition to our portfolio of mainstream operational amplifiers and comparators, we offer specific products for healthcare, industrial, and automotive applications, as well as a range of high-performance products specifically designed to meet the strict requirements of the wearable market.

In 2022, we introduced further devices in our MasterGaN^® family and the new ViperGaN family, integrating a silicon driver and GaN power transistors in a single package. Our connectivity ICs range from

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wireline to wireless solutions. We optimize our products for reliability of the communication channel and low power consumption. For wireline communication, we offer a complete family of transceivers compatible with different protocol standards used in the industry (PRIME, Meters and More, IEC 61334-5-1, CAN and others).  Our ultra-low power wireless solutions include Sub-1GHz RF chips (aka SPIRIT Family), latest generation Bluetooth Low Energy (aka BlueNRG Family) and Wi-Fi technologies.  We sell to OEMs and Mass Market both Standard and Dedicated RF solutions, either chips or certified modules.

Our FingerTip^® family of Touch Screen Controllers provides true multi-touch capability, supporting unlimited simultaneous touches, and it is optimized for the extreme low power consumption. FingerTip also enhances multi-touch actions such as pinch-to-zoom, supports stylus operations and is compatible with both flat and curved display panel.

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MEMS Sensors and Actuators

Our MEMS portfolio includes both Sensors and Actuators. We sell our MEMS products in a broad range of application fields, including mobile, gaming, computer, automotive, industrial, healthcare and IoT.

MEMS Sensors include Motion MEMS (accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetic sensors), Environmental Sensors (pressure, humidity and temperature) and Microphones. We offer a unique sensor portfolio, from discrete to fully-integrated solutions, high performance sensor fusion to improve the accuracy of multi-axis sensor systems in order to enable highly-demanding applications, such as indoor navigation and location-based services, optical image stabilization and high-level quality products.

MEMS Actuatorsactuators include: (i) Thermal and Piezoelectric Actuators for 2D and 3D Printing in Consumer, Commercial and Industrial market applications; (ii) Piezoelectric Actuators for applications such as smartphone camera Auto Focusauto focus and MEMS loudspeakers; and (iii) Piezoelectric, Electrostatic and Electromagnetic Actuators for emerging VR/AR applications such as our MEMS ScanAR technology, ultra-low power depth cameras and LIDAR Systems for assisted Smart Driving.

Specialized Imaging SensorsOptical Sensing Solutions

We also have a broad portfolio of Imagingoptical sensing solutions based on STour proprietary differentiated technologies such as FlightSense,^TM, addressing various markets, and in particular the fast growing 3D sensing consumer and automotive applications. ST Imagingapplications such as in-cabin monitoring and occupant detection. Our optical sensing solutions are composed of both specialized components developed for dedicated customers’ systems; and full optical sense and illumination system solutions targeting multiple customers.

Microcontrollers and Digital ICs Group (MDG)

MDG is comprised of general purpose and secure microcontrollers, microprocessors, EEPROM and RF memories, RF wireless and wired communication ASICs for 4G/5G terminals and infrastructure, and for satellite constellations and defense systems, based on ST proprietary silicon technologies.

Microcontroller, MemoryMicrocontrollers, Memories & Secure MCUmicrocontrollers

We have microcontrollers for general purpose and secure applications, microprocessors as well as small density serial non-volatile memories.  Our general purpose microcontroller product portfolio largely contains families of products based on 32-bit ARM®ARM^®-based Cortex^®-M0, -M0+, -M3, -M4, and M0+,M33 with the ARM^® TrustZone^®. The STM32U5, for secure & Ultra-Low-Power applications for the mass market, based on the Cortex^®-M3, Cortex-M33 with the ARM^®-M4 TrustZone^® received level 3 Platform Security Architecture and Cortex^®-M7 cores. Security Evaluation Standard for IOT Platform security certifications, taking IOT cyber-protection to the next level.

For each product family, a broad selection of features is available with respect to MCUmicrocontroller performance, ultra-low-power, memory size, peripherals, and packaging. Numerous dedicated families include features such as our TouchGFX^® advanced 3D graphics, dedicated peripherals for industrial motor controls, security features, and low-power wireless connectivity.  During 2019, we launched 10 new families including a new

Our microprocessors product line of microprocessors (MPU) targeting the industrial applications, which allows us to enter a new embedded market segment.  The MPU product line is based on 32-bit ARM^®-based^® Cortex^®-A-A7 Core, complemented by an integrated Cortex^®-M4 and a dedicated Linux distribution.  We continue to offer a well-established family of 8-bit microcontrollers, using ST proprietary core architecture targeting consumer, automotive and ultra-low power simpler applications.

The STM32 family based on the ARM^® Cortex^®-M and Cortex^®-A processors are designed to offer significant degrees of freedom to microcontroller and microprocessors users. The product range combines very high performance, real-time capabilities, digital signal processing, and low-power, low-voltage operation, while maintaining full integration and ease of development.

The We offer an unparalleled and large range of STM32 devices, accompanied by a vast choice of tools and software including support for Industrial Safety Standard IEC 61508 SIL2/3, Human Machine Interface (HMI), andInterface. Our dedicated Cube-AI toolbox for Artificial Intelligence includingincludes Machine learning and Neural Networks,neural networks. This comprehensive portfolio makes this family of productsour STM32 an ideal choice for enabling ever smarter objects for an increasingly broad range of applications.

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In 2022, we continued to strengthen our STM32 microcontroller ecosystem with various releases and updates of STM32cube, STM32Cube.AI,NanoEdge AI Studio,CubeMX and TouchGFX. Together with Microsoft, we developed a highly secure Azure IoT cloud reference implementation embedding the STM32U5, Microsoft Azure RTOS and the STSAFE-A110 secure element. Together with Amazon Web Services, we also developed a new secure AWS FreeRTOS-qualified reference implementation embedding the STM32U5 and the STSAFE-A110 secure element.

We offer leading products for secure applications in traditional smartcard applications and embedded security applications. Throughout our 20+ year presence in the smartcard security industry, we have supplied the market’s most advanced technologies and solutions, with a continuous focus on innovation and the highest levels of security certification. Our expertise in security is key to our leadership in the mobile communications, banking, digital identity, IoT security, pay-TV identity, and transport fields. We also actively contribute toare the emergence of new applications such asleading supplier for the Embedded SIM market and we are scaling-up in secure mobile transactions using Near Field Communication (“NFC”) for mobile phones, trusted computing, brand protection and security for IoT devices. Our secure microcontroller product portfolio offers compliance with the latest security standards up to Common Criteria EAL6+, ICAO, and TCG1.2. Our secure microcontrollers cover a complete range of interfaces for both contact and contactless communication, including ISO 7816, ISO 14443 Type A & B, NFC, USB, SPI and I²C.

In 2022 our STPayBio biometric payment solution was named CES Innovation Honoree in the Cybersecurity & Personal Privacy category and the STPay-Topaz-Bio biometric payment card platform completed the EMVCo certification.

Our secure-microcontroller platforms rely on a highly secure architecture combined with leading‑edge CPUs, such as ARM^®’s SC300 and SC000, and our proprietary advanced embedded non-volatile memory technologies such as 40 nm embedded Flash and 80 nm embedded EEPROM technologies.

Our wide range of small density serial non-volatile memories has among the highest industry performance. The serial EEPROM family ranges from 1 Kbit to 432 Mbits and offers the most common serial interfaces to facilitate adoption:  I²C, SPI and Microwire. Our wide range of products are also automotive compliant. Very small packagespackage options are available for applications where space is critical, such usas in camera modules for consumer and mobile devices.

In 2022 we introduced the 32Mbit M95P32, the market’s first serial page EEPROM for ultra-low power applications, manufactured using our patented e-STM 40 nm non-volatile memory.

We offer RF memory and transceiver products that are key for logistic and retail applications and are based on the largest industry standard for short range High-Frequency RFID standard by ISO14443.ISO 14443 and 15693. The products are compatible with all NFC technology standards, as defined by the NFC Forum, where ST plays a key role.role, including the latest NFC type 5. We offer one of the most comprehensive portfolios, which includes NFC/RFID readers, Dynamic NFC/RFID tags, also known as Dual Interface NFC/RFID tags, and Standalone NFC/RFID tags. We also offer RFID Readers operating in the UHF bands for longer range logistics operation.

RF, Wireless and Wired Communication

We offer RF, digital and mixedmixed-signal ASICs, which are based on our proprietary FD-SOI, RF-SOI, and SiGe technology,technologies, as well as foundry-based FinFET technologies, for 4G-5G and Satellite wireless particularly forcommunications RF Front-End Modules, and wired communications infrastructure and Satellite terminals.  Our

We also use our proprietary FD-SOI, RF-SOI, and SiGe technologies to provide RF and mmWave components, servebased on our know-how in analog and digital beamforming design techniques, to address Massive MIMO Antenna Architectures.

Our unique combination of differentiated Silicon technologies and design expertise is particularly pertinent to address the marketmarkets for satellite links,constellations and user terminals, 5G infrastructure RF front-end,Front-End, and transceivers for very-short range,very-short-range ultra-low-power 60GHz multi-Gigabit speed60 GHz multi-Gigabit/second links.

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Alliances with Customers and Industry Partnerships

We believe that customer alliances with customers and industry partnerships are critical to our success in the semiconductor industry.market. Customer alliances provide us with valuable systems and application know-how and access to markets for key products, while allowingenabling our customers to gain access to our process technologies and manufacturing infrastructure. We are actively working to expand the number of our customer alliances, targeting key global OEMs.OEMs as well as emerging, innovative customers and partners around the globe.

From time to time we collaborate with other semiconductor industry companies, research organizations, universities, and suppliers to further our R&D efforts. Such collaboration provides us with a number of important benefits, including the sharing of costs, reductions in our own capital requirements, acquisitions of technical know-how and access to additional production capacities.

Customers and Applications

We design, develop, manufacture and market thousands of products thatwhich we sell to over 100,000200,000 customers. We emphasize balance in oura broad and balanced product portfolio, in the applications we serve and in the regional markets we address.serve. Our major customers include Apple, Robert Bosch, Ciena, Continental, Hewlett-Packard,HP, Huawei, Mobileye, Samsung, SeagateSpaceX, Tesla and Tesla.Vitesco. In addition, our broad portfolio including dedicated Automotive ICs; Discrete and Power Transistors; Analog, Industrial and Power Conversion ICs; General Purpose Microcontrollers and Microprocessors, Connected Security products and EEPROMs; MEMS and Optical Sensing solutions; and ASICs based on ST proprietary technologies helps foster closecloser, strategic relationships with customers, whichcustomers. This broad product breadth provides opportunities to enable application solutions and to supply such customers’ requirements for multiple products, including analog, digital,all their product and power products applications.technology needs. We also sell our products through distributors and retailers.our distribution channel.

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Sales, Marketing and Distribution

Our sales and marketing is organized by a combination of country/area coverageregional and key accountsaccount coverage with the primary objective of accelerating sales growth and gaining market share, particularly with regards to:share. Emphasis is placed on strengthening the effectiveness of  the development of our global and major local accounts; boosting demand creation through an enhanced focus on geographical and key account coverage with strong technical and application expertise, supported in the mass market by our distribution channel and local initiatives; and establishing regional sales and marketing teams that are fully aligned with our strategic end-markets: automotive, industrial, personal electronics and communications equipment, computers and peripherals.

We have threefour regional sales organizations reporting to a global head of Sales & Marketing: Americas; Asia Pacific;Americas, APeC (Asia Pacific excluding China), China and EMEA. Our regional sales organizations have a similar structure to enhance coordination in global strategy alignmentcoordination and go-to-market activities. The sales and marketing teams are strongly focused on profitable revenue growth and business performance as well as on fostering demand creation, expanding the customer base, maximizing market share, developing new product-roadmaps and providing the best technical and application support in the field for our customers. The sales and marketing activities are supported by sales engineers, system marketing, product marketing, application labs, field application engineers and quality engineers.

We engage distributors and sales representatives to distribute and promote our products around the world. Typically, distributors handle a wide variety of products, including those that compete with ours, and fulfill orders and service manyours. Our distributors have a dual role, in that they assist in fulfilling the demand of our customers.customers by servicing their orders, while also supporting the creation of product demand and business development. Most of our sales to distributors are made under specific agreements allowing for price protection and some with the right of return onstock rotation for unsold merchandise. Sales representatives, on the other hand, generally do not offer products that compete directly with our products, but may carry complementary items manufactured by others. Sales representatives do not maintain a product inventory and their customers place large quantity orders directly with us and are referred to distributors for smaller orders.

At the request of certain customers, we also sell and deliver our products to electronics manufacturing services (“EMS”) companies, which, on a contractual basis with our customers, incorporate our products into the application specific products they manufacture for our customers. We also sell products to original design manufacturers (“ODM”). ODMs manufacture products for our customers much like EMS companies do, but they also design applications for our customers, and in doing so themselves select the products and suppliers

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that they wish to purchase from. In furtherance of our strong commitment to quality, our sales organizations include personnel dedicated to close monitoring and resolution of quality related issues.

For a breakdown of net revenues by segment and geographic region for the last three fiscal years, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects”.

Research and Development

Since our formation, we have maintained a solid commitment to innovation.  About one-sixthinnovation because we believe that market driven R&D based on leading‑edge products and technologies is critical to our success. We devote significant effort to R&D because we believe such investment can be leveraged into competitive advantages: about 17.6% of our employees work in R&D on product design/development and technology and, in 2019,2022, we spent approximately 15.7%11.8% of our net revenues on R&D.

New developments in semiconductor technology can make end products significantly cheaper, smaller, faster, more reliable and embedded than their predecessors, with differentiated functionalities. They can enable significant value creation opportunities with their timely appearance on the market. Our innovations in semiconductor technology as well as in hardware and software contribute to the creation of successful products that generate value for us and our customers. Our complete design platforms, including a large selection of IP and silicon-proven models and design rules, enable the fast development of products designed to meet customer expectations in terms of reliability, quality, competitiveness in price and time-to-market. Through our R&D efforts, we contribute to making our customers’ products more efficient, more appealing, more reliable and safer.

Our technology R&D strategy is based on the development of differentiated technologies, allowing for a unique offer in terms of new products and enabling new applications opportunities.

We draw on a rich pool of chip fabrication technologies, including advanced CMOS, FD-SOI, RF-SOI, specialized imaging,optical sensing, embedded non-volatile memories, mixed-signal, analog, MEMS, Smartsmart power, SiC and GaN processes. This is well embedded in our strong packaging technologies portfolio such as high pin count BGA, Wafer level packaging, highly integrated sensor packages and leadframe package power products. We combine both front-end and back-end manufacturing and technology R&D under the same organization to ensure a smooth flow of information between our R&D and manufacturing organizations. We leverage significant synergies and shared activities between our product groups to cross-fertilize them. We also use silicon foundries, especially for advanced CMOS beyond the 28 nm node that we do not plan to manufacture nor develop internally.

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We have advanced R&D and innovation centers which offer us a significant advantage in quickly and cost effectively introducing products. Furthermore, we have established a strong culture of partnerships and through the years have created a network of strategic collaborations with key customers, suppliers, competitors, and leading universities and research institutes around the world. See “Item 4. Information on the Company — Alliances with Customers and Industry Partnerships”. We also play leadership roles in numerous projects running under the European Union’s IST (Information Society Technologies) programs. We also participate in certain R&D programs established by the EU, individual countries and local authorities in Europe (primarily in France and Italy). See “Item 4. Information on the Company — Public Funding”.

We believe that market driven R&D based on leading‑edge products and technologies is critical to our success.  We devote significant effort to R&D because we believe such investment can be leveraged into competitive advantages.  New developments in semiconductor technology can make end products significantly cheaper, smaller, faster, more reliable and embedded than their predecessors, with differentiated functionalities.  They can enable significant value creation opportunities with their timely appearance on the market.  The total amount of our R&D expenses in the past three fiscal years was $1,498$1,901 million, $1,398$1,723 million and $1,296$1,548 million in 2019, 20182022, 2021 and 2017,2020, respectively. For more information on our R&D expenses, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects — Results of Operations — Research and Development Expenses”.

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Property, Plants and Equipment

We currently operate 1314 main manufacturing sites around the world. The table below sets forth certain information with respect to our current manufacturing facilities, products and technologies. Front-end manufacturing facilities are fabs and back-end facilities are assembly, packaging and final testing plants.

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At December 31, 2019,2022, our front-end facilities had a total maximum capacity of approximately 130,380 200 mm equivalent140,000 wafer starts per week.week (200mm equivalent). The number of wafer starts per week varies from facility to facility and from period to period as a result of changes in product mix.

We own all of our manufacturing facilities, but certain facilities (Muar, Malaysia; Shenzhen, China; Kirkop, Malta; and Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio, Singapore) are built on land subject ofto long-term leases.

We have historically subcontracted a portion of total manufacturing volumes to external suppliers. In 2019,2022, we subcontracted approximately 18%25% of the value of our total silicon production to external foundries. Our plan is to continue sourcing silicon from external foundries to give us flexibility in supporting our growth.

At December 31, 2019,2022, we had approximately $514$3,584 million in outstanding commitments for purchases of equipment and other assets for delivery in 2020.2023. In 2019,2022, our capital spending, net of proceeds, was $1,174$3,524 million compared to $1,262$1,828 million in 2018.2021. In the 2017-20192020-2022 period the ratio of capital investment spending to net revenues was about 13.6%17%. For more information, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects — Financial Outlook: Capital Investment”.

Intellectual Property (IP)

Our success depends in part on our ability to obtain patents, licenses and other IP rights to protect our proprietary technologies and processes. IP rights that apply to our various products include patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks and mask work rights. We currently own approximately 18,000 19,500patents and pending patent applications, corresponding to approximately 9,600 9,300patent families (each patent family containing all patents originating from the same invention), including over 588 original597 new patent applications filedfilings in 2019.2022.

We believe that our IP represents valuable assets. We rely on various intellectual property laws, confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions to protect our IP assets and enforce our IP rights. To optimize the value of our IP assets, we have engaged in licensing our design technology and other IP, including patents, when consistent with our competitive position and our customers’ interests. We have also entered into broad-scope cross-licenses and other agreements which enable us to design, manufacture and sell semiconductor products using the IP rights of third parties and/or operating within the scope of IP rights owned by third parties.

From time to time, we are involved in IP litigation and infringement claims. See Note 26 to our Consolidated Financial Statements and Item“Item 3. “KeyKey Information — Risk Factors”. Regardless of the validity or the successful assertion of such claims, we may incur significant costs with respect to the defense thereof, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flow or financial condition.

Backlog

Our sales are made primarily pursuant to standard purchase orders that are generally booked from one to twelve months in advance of delivery. Quantities actually purchased by customers, as well as prices, are subject to variations between booking and delivery and, in some cases, to cancellation due to changes in customer needs or industry conditions. During periods of economic slowdown and/or industry overcapacity and/or declining selling prices, customer orders are not generally made far in advance of the scheduled shipment date. Such reduced lead time can diminish management’s ability to forecast production levels and revenues. When the economy rebounds, our customers may strongly increase their demands, which can result in capacity constraints due to a time lag when matching manufacturing capacity with such demand.

In addition, our sales are affected by seasonality, with the first quarter generally showing lowest revenue levels in the year, and the third or fourth quarter historically generating higher amounts of revenues partly as a result of the seasonal dynamics for smartphone applications dynamics  dynamics.

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We also sell certain products to key customers pursuant to frame contracts. Frame contracts are annual contracts with customers setting forth quantities and prices on specific products that may be ordered in the future. These contracts allow us to schedule production capacity in advance and allow customers to manage their inventory levels consistent with just-in-time principles while shortening the cycle times required to produce ordered products. Orders under frame contracts are also subject to a high degree of volatility, because they reflect expected market conditions which may or may not materialize. Thus, they are subject to risks of price reduction, order cancellation and modifications as to quantities actually ordered resulting in inventory build-ups.

Furthermore, developing industry trends, including customers’ use of outsourcing and their deployment of new and revised supply chain models, may reduce our ability to forecast changes in customer demand and may increase our financial requirements in terms of capital expenditures and inventory levels.

We entered 20192022 with a backlog lowerhigher than we had entering 2018.2021. For 2020,2023, we entered the year with a backlog higher than what we had entering 2019.2022.

Competition

Markets for our products are intensely competitive. We compete with major international semiconductor companies and while only a few companies compete with us in all of our product lines, we face significant competition from each of them. Smaller niche companies are also increasing their participation in the semiconductor market, and semiconductor foundry companies have expanded significantly, particularly in Asia. Competitors include manufacturers of standard semiconductors, ASICs and fully customized ICs, including both chip and board-level products, as well as customers who develop their own IC products and foundry operations. Some of our competitors are also our customers.customers or suppliers. We compete in different product lines to various degrees on the basis of price, technical performance, product features, product system compatibility, customized design, availability, quality and sales and technical support. In particular, standard products may involve greater risk of competitive pricing, inventory imbalances and severe market fluctuations than differentiated products. Our ability to compete successfully depends on factors both within and outside our control, including successful and timely development of new products and manufacturing processes, product performance and quality, manufacturing yields and product availability, customer service, pricing, industry trends and general economic trends.

The semiconductor industry is characterized by the high costs associated with developing marketable products and manufacturing technologies as well as high levels of investment in production capabilities. As a result, the semiconductor industry has experienced, and is expected to continue to experience, significant vertical and horizontal consolidation among our suppliers, competitors and customers, which could lead to erosion of our market share, impact our capacity to compete and require us to restructure our operations. See Item“Item 3. “KeyKey Information — Risk Factors”.

Organizational Structure and History

We are organized in a matrix structure with geographic regions interacting with product lines, both supported by shared technology and manufacturing operations and by central functions, designed to enable us to be closer to our customers and to facilitate communication among the R&D, production, marketing and sales organizations.

While STMicroelectronics N.V. is the parent company, we conduct our global business through STMicroelectronics International N.V. and also conduct our operations through service activities from our subsidiaries. We provide certain administrative, human resources, legal, treasury, strategy, manufacturing, marketing, insurance and other overhead services to our consolidated subsidiaries pursuant to service agreements for which we recover the cost.

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The following table lists our consolidated subsidiaries and our percentage of ownership as of December 31, 2019:2022:

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